Version 2.0 of the History of the Order of Freelance Mages is more or less done. I'll be making some edits, of course, but this is probably the base I'm gonna use to make my characters.

Spoiler for The Beginning:

In the early days of the TSAB's expansion and influence over their little slice of galaxy, many of their ships were lost to the void. Sometimes AI would malfunction; sometimes a small error in the calculations would bounce a ship into a star or a supernova; and sometimes, the ship's crew would simply revolt and have to be brought down by other nearby TSAB ships.

In this endless void known as space, one ship, the cruiser Ramza, and its sister ship, the Alma, were travelling together through this endless void. They had jumped just ouside of a star system known at the time as Non-Administered System 457, and was under observation. Two planets within the system seemed to be in a constant state of war. Using non-magical, advanced technology (though not quite on the level of the TSAB), they fought each other tooth and nail. Laser cannons the size of tractor-trailers fired at each other through the void; space fighters weaved between the blasts and fired missiles and railgun slugs at the other in a constant dance of death; even the planets themselves seemed to be at odds with each other. The Ramza's crew saw that the orbits of the planets were oddly-shaped: In fact, the orbits intercepted each other, and it was a wonder the two planets hadn't collided. The planets themselves, due to the odd pull of both the system's local star and their own planetary mass, plus years of war, had taken a toll on the shape and face of the celestial bodies. Not only were they raked with scars from weapons, they seemed to be pulled and pushed into an odd shape that was less of a sphere or an oval and more of a really massive asteroid.

In effect, the planets were tearing each other apart. Apparently, this applied to the citizens as well. Intercepted radio transmissions revealed that the citizens were in a constant state of hatred at the other planet. The peoples' homeworld, Erusia, and the other planet, Sotoa, hated each other so much that their hate was palatable, even from this far in space. The crews of the TSAB ships were slightly disgusted at this, but made a note of the planets' location in their logs. Assuming that both planets still existed in a few decades, maybe they would be ready for administration, and peace would rule this system.

And then the Ramza Incident happened.

Spoiler for The Ramza Incident:

It wasn't really anything major, at least not to the ships involved. In the early days of the TSAB, ships malfunctioned all the time for one reason or another. Sometimes the magitech reactors powering the ships would malfunction and go berserk, sometimes shutting down permenantly... or sometimes exploding in a violent flash of light and heat. Sometimes the AI would stop functioning, perhaps due to a virus or simply because at the time advanced AI was still in its early stages. Sometimes the crew would revolt, or something decidedly human would occur.

In these cases, the TSAB had certain regulations set up. Since most ships were designed for defense and not salvage, few except the biggest of ships had tractor beams loaded. In the event of a reactor malfunction, the crew would evacuate the ship and get as far away from it as possible before it exploded - or if it didn't. In the event of something else, the crew would attempt to send out a distress signal. In the event of a distress signal being unusable, they would again evacuate to the nearest TSAB ship. It was why scouts traveled in groups of two, and why those ships were always undermanned.

It's not for certain what happened to the Ramza back then; perhaps it was a reactor malfunction, or maybe the AI tried to kill everyone, or maybe something else happened. No one knows for sure. All that's known is that something happened, and when it happened, the captain deemed it wise to drop everything and run for the Alma. Certain precautions that should have been taken weren't due to neglect. For example, the AI's database should have been wiped out, but in whatever panic that occured this was not done. Any and all Devices were also supposed to have been taken off of the ship, but again, this was not done. Instead, all that occured was a mass evacuation to the accompanying ship as mentioned in the log... then nothing. Shortly after this, the Alma also disappeared into the void of space. They haven't been seen since.

Whatever happened, though, and the crew's reaction to it, would cause a shift in the way war worked for the people of Un-Administered System 457. The Ramza, despite being left derelict and drifting in space, nonetheless succumbed to the star's faint, but existant, gravitational pull. The ship slowly made its way to the warring planets. In a year's time, it literally drifted into the middle of a large-scale firefight between both sides.

This was the Ramza Incident. When two warring sides stopped fighting when something alien, something inhuman to them, drifted into their battle. Their lasers and missiles never even hurt the vessel, its armor or shields too thick and hard for them to penetrate. Both sides conveted the strange craft as they sent their salvage ships after it, using their tractor beams to hold it in place as scientists from both sides were forced into the ship, to uncover its secrets. With their limited knowledge, they couldn't have, shouldn't have learned anything from the Ramza.

But then, the planet was supposed to have been found. It was supposed to have been recorded. But it never was.

And over one-hundred years later, the fruits of constant research and attention would reveal to the people of Un-Administered System 457 the secrets of this vessel.

Spoiler for MC052:

It had been a century since the Ramza Incident. The place where System 457 lay was at the edge of the Yellow Zone now, far away from the eyes of the TSAB.

It had taken them a hundred years of time and research and effort, but finally, the people of System 457 were unified. They had taken the time and the effort, over five generations, to take apart and put back together the Ramza, learning everything they could about it. They learned the Mid-Childan language, learned how to use Devices (well, some of them did. Roughly 17% of the collective population of the system was theorized to have the ability to use the Devices), and even learned how to make crude versions of the Ramza itself. Somewhere along the way, they ripped out the Magitech reactor and placed within the ship a block of standard fusion reactors, then, after they gleaned everything they could from the AI, they erased it the best they could and installed their own within the ship. Putting their best crew on it, they made the ship, the "Erusian Flag Ship Berkut", theirs. It wasn't perfect by any means, but to them, it was the best they had.

Meanwhile, the TSAB had been sending out ships to find their lost ones in an effort to make sure no damage had been done. Just in case, they were sending fleets of ships, five cruisers apiece, to the far reaches of the galaxy. Many ships were recovered in this method - or pieces of ships. One fleet, the 5th Fleet, stumbled upon System 457 in their travels, having learned of the missing Ramza.

What greeted them was a much different sight than what had greeted them before. Instead of a constant war raging between two worlds, instead there was peace. Both worlds united under one banner, and despite their large warfleets, they seemed to be unassuming in appearance. The fleet approached, having detected the Ramza within the orbit of one of the worlds. As soon as they were in sensor range, they were contacted by the Captain of the former Ramza.

This was First Contact for these people, known as Erusians. They were cautious but willing to listen.

It was for this reason that maybe there was a chance for what the future held for the Erusian people to change. During the conversation between the two captains (the Erusians had even taken Mid-Childan as their second or third language over the century), they agreed that a peace conference from the TSAB would be sent, and the fate of the Ramza and the Erusians would be discussed. The 5th Fleet left without worry.

The fleet would return a year later, this time with a sixth ship. This ship, a ship of peace, launched a shuttle to the Erusian homeworld. Together, they met with a delegation from the Erusians, and together, the two groups began to talk about peace.

But there was a problem. The translation of Erusian to Mid-Childan was not perfect. Many words were misused or mistaken. One of these words would spark a conflict that would mean the end of the Erusians as a free people. That word, was "Administration." This word was mistaken, to the Erusians. To them, it meant something in their language.

Delat' Nevol'nikov. Roughly Translated: "Enslavement."

The TSAB delegation never made it off the planet. After a heated argument, the leaders of Erusia made a grave mistake; they had the delegation killed. The TSAB peace officers had not brought their Devices with them. Had they done so, they may have made it back alive.

Shortly after the delegation was killed, the 5th Fleet noticed that at one point or another, they had become surrounded by Erusian warships. The leader of the fleet quickly sent out the order to raise shields, but by the time the message was relayed, the former Ramza and all the battleships of the Erusian fleet opened fire.

A century had been kind to both sides. For the Erusians, it saw a steady increase in their knowledge and their design of war. Against the TSAB, however, it was an outdated concept, the Ramza was. Nominally, one ship like the Ramza taking on its descendant would be a heated, but the victor would be easy to determine. However, even a TSAB ship cannot withstand the sheer force that twenty battleship-sized weapons have on her hulls. One of the 5th Fleet's warships were quickly lost to the planetary weapons.

This sparked a quick battle between both sides. Even with their older technology, the Erusians put up a sizeable threat due to one thing alone: Sheer numbers. The Erusians had been bred for war, it seemed. For every destroyer that would be swatted aside, a cruiser would take its place. The Erusians knew that, individually, there was no way they could win. However, if they directed their fire consistently on one ship, it would go down. They may not have had Magitech for their ships (that was limited to the Devices found onboard the Ramza itself; as of that time, they still only had a limited understanding of the Devices themselves, only the results), but they had weapons they had been refining for centuries. The Erusians themselves lost 12 ships in that conflict. The TSAB lost four out of six by the time they decided to get help.

Spoiler for The Subjugation War:

The TSAB quickly came to a conclusion on how to deal with something like this. They were going to subjugate and take over Erusia in retaliation for what they had done. They amassed an equal number of warships compared to what Erusia had.

Erusia had approximately five-hundred ships of various ages and sizes, ranging from ships that were active when the Ramza drifted into orbit to knockoff versions of the Ramza itself. Each ship bristled with weaponry; it seemed that to the Erusians, location was no object. They were extremely heavily armed, compared to the TSAB's more modest but more advanced arms.

The TSAB wasnted this battle over and quickly. They amassed three fleets of warships, approximately fifty ships apiece. Then they assembled a fourth fleet, one primarily filled with troop transports, to land on the Erusian world and take it over from the ground.

This took time. By the time the gathering of the fleet was over, the year was MC056. Among the people involved were Admiral Graham and a young Lindy Harlown, along with a few select Enforcer Units and the last users of Belkan magic. The numbers were heavily lopsided - 150 warships of cruiser and destroyer class versus 200 Erusian warships.

The combined TSAB warped in on the dawn of June MC056.

War began with a flash. Both sides instantly raised shields and begun to fight each other. The Erusians were less advanced than the TSAB, but from their inception into the Navy the average Erusian was taught centuries of fighting strategies and tactics. This, along with holding their strategy of destroy-one-ship-at-a-time, was actually a threat to the TSAB. A few barrages of weaponry would rupture and destroy shields, and another few would cause the hull to leak and crack under pressure.

But this time it was the TSAB that had advantage of numbers. Partway through the fight, three more fleets for the TSAB had warped in compared to the one for the Erusians. It was at this point, when reinforcements arrived, that the TSAB sent the Erusians a message.

"You can't win. But there are alternatives to fighting. Surrender now, and we can save countless lives."

Less than 30 seconds later, the Fleet Commander for the Erusians responded.

"An Erusian would die rather than surrender. We will fight until the last possible ship is destroyed!"

And this they did.

It took hours. Both sides fought each other down, destroying ships everywhere. The void of space was scattered with mixed TSAB and Erusian ship parts. More reinforcements for both sides came, and it wasn't long before the Erusians were outnumbered 3 to 1... then 5 to 1... then 10 to 1.

Eventually, it all came down to one ship: the Berkut. As two TSAB Cruisers flanked it, they were offered one last chance of surrender.

"No harm will come to the crew." They promised/lied. "If you surrender now, we will not invade your homeworld."

And then, agonizing silence. It seemed like the Erusians were going to agree; the Berkut powered down her battered shields, lowered her dead/empty weapons, released a few escape pods toward the planet below, and brought the engines to a full stop. Soon, a transmission opened to the two flagships flanking it. The Fleet Commander smiled to them bitterly.

"Didn't I tell you? We would rather die!"

Within the bowels of the Ramza/Berkut, the eight blocks of Fusion reactors overheated. Eight blocks of fusion reactors were simultaneously forced to detonate. The Ramza/Berkut glowed bright white, and before they could react, the Berkut exploded.

Despite all their technology, a point-blank Fusion explosion is still extremely powerful. Shields crumpled, hull melted, and the last known Erusian ship detonated in a blaze of fury, taking with it two TSAB flagships.

The numbers were counted. Counting the reinforcemnts, the Erusians had whittled the TSAB to 3/4s their number. They were down to a total of 297 ships. Of course, the Erusian ships numbered at 100% destruction... all 825 of them.

This is all of 2.0 for now. I haven't quite covered the landside of the war.
Suffice to say I think this is a more viable solution to the war. It's a far more "realistic" answer to the battle. The TSAB would inevitably have taken losses, but the Erusians would have suffered more.